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Tuesday, July 1

When I received news about appearing in the newspaper again, I thought that this principal in Sibu was pulling my leg. I laughed off the early morning WhatsApp message in good humour. Soon, more messages came & then I was FB tagged in a picture of the article by a hot dentist friend.

I didn't know about the article & my permission was not sought. I studied the picture of the article & found that it is an exact replica of an article written about me in Victorious, the alumni magazine of my alma mater, Victoria University of Wellington. I don't know whether to be alarmed or happy about this.
Even though I appreciate the recognition & being used as the face of New Zealand education in Sarawak, I should have at least been informed. I am going to seek an explanation.

Meanwhile, it's business as usual for me. I'm just the flavour of the week. Being featured in newspapers does not make me a better teacher nor any better than any other teacher.
I'm still trekking 10 minutes to the river to do my bathing/washing/cleaning just like any other jungle teacher.
I'm still paid peanuts to do what I do. Paid like teachers who do very little too. hmm...

Also, I'm trying very hard not to let all this publicity get to my head.
You have permission to slap me when my head gets so full of hot steam it floats through the air like an Angry Bird. Be gentle.

Maybe with this new found fame... will someone powerful who reads this please tell the ministry to send good principals & teachers to the interiors?
What's the point of having Guru Cemerlangs & Pengetua Cemerlangs in top schools? Put them some place where they can make a real difference instead of being Great Clerks or Powerful Clerks in schools who can run extremely well without them.Teaching in the interiors is a privilege. NOT a punishment. You can quote me on that.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

~~Patañjali

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them to become what they are capable of being."

~~Goethe

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

~~EE Cummings

"Tell me and I will forget. Teach me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn."

~~Benjamin Franklin

自知知,不知知不知

知者自知,不知者不知

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather become a man of value."

~~Albert Einstein

"Teaching is more than impacting knowledge, it is inspiring change."

~~William Arthur Ward

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

~~Napoleon Hill

"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

~~John Dewey

"The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings."

~~Thomas Sowell

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

~~ Edmund Burke

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."